


Of Survivors and Killers

by GentleClaw



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 04:37:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16716719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GentleClaw/pseuds/GentleClaw
Summary: Some speculate that some of the Killers started out as Survivors. What would that transformation look like?





	Of Survivors and Killers

_“Have the Killers started out at this Campfire too?”_

_Benedict Baker, journal entry 49_

   The words from Benedict's journal swim through Bill’s head as he looks at Dwight. All of the survivors had read the old journals they found, sharing the info with each other. Most of what they read helped them in the trials, though some left a shadow on their minds. They all feared that they might someday become the very things that hunted them. Once human, now nothing more than Killers. Part of Bill still hoped that maybe by working together, keeping each other sane, they could avoid it. The other part of Bill accepted that there was no escape in this place. Not that any of that made it easier to see how distant Dwight had become.

   It had started a while back, several trails at least. Dwight hadn’t made it out, and when the other survivors had come by his campfire to check on him, they had seen him just sitting there, staring at nothing, barely breathing or moving. It took them several minutes to get Dwight to even look at them, and several more to get him say anything. His words were short, and his voice distant.

David was the one able to get Dwight to finally really start talking, and the rest of the survivors breathed a sigh of relief. Dwight might not be ok, but he was back.

   Bill had the next trail with Dwight, and he stuck close to the young buck. Part of him was still worried, and he couldn’t seem to get Benedict’s words out of his head. With two generators on, Nea on the hook with Tapp making his way over to her, Bill and Dwight set to work on the third generator. They had half the pistons moving when Bill heard the sound of The Spirit materializing next to them. He lunged to the side, putting himself between her and Dwight. He grunted as the sword slashed his side, and he kept pushing Dwight ahead of him. Dwight, to his credit did run, and Bill broke away from him in an attempt to put some distance between the killer and everyone else. THUD. The pallet dropped behind him, and he heard the strangled yell of The Spirit as she was momentarily stunned. The sound of a generator clicking on was a welcome tune, though his luck at outrunning the killer was over.

He watched from the hook as The Spirit headed towards his fellow survivors, and watched with fear as she targeted Dwight. “Come on kid, keep it together. Just run, try to get away.” But Dwight didn’t. He just stood there as The Spirit bore down on him.

That trial didn't end well. Not at all.

~~~

Bill sat at his fire, thinking. Wondering.

Had Dwight truly given up, or was there still time? He pondered this for a while, before a voice floated through the fog to him.

“Dwight, where are you going?! What’s in the fog that could be so interesting?”

   That was Kate’s voice, no doubt. Bill got up and headed towards the source, only to bump straight into Dwight, knocking him back a few steps. Just as Bill was about to ask if Dwight was okay, he saw the hollow look in his eyes, the blankness of his face. Bill took Dwight by the shoulders and steered him back to the larger campfire where everyone gathered when they wanted company. Kate, catching on to what Bill was up to, let out a series of sharp whistles. It was a simple code that the survivors had created, the whistles penetrating the fog, and able to be heard by everyone. Most had already made it to the fire when Bill, Dwight, and Kate marched in. Jake came up just a moment later, with Claudette and Adam tailing behind. With everyone there, Bill sat Dwight down on one of the logs and got ready to start the conversation.

“Dwight.”

   David’s voice cut across the clearing, heading Bill off. Everyone turned to look at him, and Dwight himself looked up and actually focused on him. David’s voice had an odd tone to it, almost thick and scared just a bit. As Bill looked around, he saw similar expressions of fear in everyone’s face. He realized everyone knew why the meeting had been called.

“Yes David?” Dwight asked, though there was precious little emotion in his voice.

“You’re still fighting, right? You’re still holding on? ‘Cause you can’t give into that disgusting clawed piece of shit. You got to keep fighting.”

   “Why? Everyday it’s all the same. Get dragged to a trail, fight for every second, pray that you make it out a door. Try not to get killed, and for what? More fog? What’s the point anymore?” The last line said with just a tad bit more emphasis, and tad bit more emotion as Dwight looked around at his friends faces, searching for some sort of answer. Not that any of them had one to give. They just knew in their hearts that giving up meant death, that there was a finality to it. And maybe it was only the human instinct to _fight_ and _survive_ that kept them going, but no-one wanted to see Dwight give in. They didn’t want the journals to be true about that.

   Dwight got up and headed back into the fog, thankfully towards his own campfire. The rest of the survivors watched him go before sharing looks with each other. Laurie sighed, “Benedict’s journals seem to have more truth to them than we thought. We need to try to keep Dwight’s spirit up, keep him fighting.”

   “Sure, but how? He’s already lost the will to survive a trail.” Ace had a point didn’t he? Not that Bill was particularly pleased to make that comment, even to himself. This was something the old soldier had seen before, in his various deployments. Soldiers losing their sense of purpose, the reason to live. When that had happened before, they got transferred to desk jobs, somewhere they wouldn’t get their platoon harmed, and hopefully somewhere they could recover just a bit. Or they ended up nothing more than a flag and pair of dog tags.

   Adam spoke up at this point, looking towards Jake, Claudette, and Meg. “You three probably know Dwight best, or at least more of what he was like before the Entity grabbed him. What were Dwight’s interests and passions back home? What did he do for work, or like to study?”

“I know he worked for a pizza shop, was a manager there too,” Meg spoke slowly, as though she was trying hard to remember. “He did well there I believe, they did a recognition system with pins for his uniform, Dwight was really proud of the ones he had.”

“He didn’t eat pizza much, working around it as often as he did curbed his appeal for it, but you could always get him into an argument about pizza toppings.” Claudette smiled as she said it, remembering back to when there were only the four of them.

“Don’t mention anchovies or pineapple in the same sentence as pizza, dear lord,” Jake chuckled, recalling all too well those early days when they were at each other's throats as much as not.

   “Okay, maybe we can get him to talk about that for a bit. Pull him back to where his hope lies. I dislike seeing him like this, he was always a chatterbox, and always looking to lend a hand.” Quentin looked around, judging everyone’s reactions to this course of action. Heads nodded one by one. The survivors were in agreement.

With a plan in place, the survivors headed back to their personal campfires and got what rest they could.

   It was a few trails later before Bill saw Dwight again, but he looked a little better. Bill already knew from Nea that Dwight and Jake had gotten into quite the argument over pizza, which led to a few blows being traded, and Claudette scolding them for wasting a medkit. Everyone gathered at the clearing that night, and Ace, for what he was worth, conjured up a couple decks of cards. Before long there was gales of laughter, and the occasional shout of “YOU CHEATED!” as the card games got stranger and stranger. Bill noticed how everyone would steal the occasional glance towards Dwight, keeping an eye.

   Things seemed to be going okay, and it looked as though Dwight was out of danger. Then he didn’t come back. He’d gone into a trial with Jake, Laurie, and Meg. Laurie appeared at her campfire, having been sacrificed early on. Jake and Meg ran out of the fog a while later, and looked around the campfires nervously.

“Dwight didn’t follow you two out?” Quentin asked.

The panicked look that they shared was answer enough. The survivors waited a while longer, to see if he appeared at his campfire again. When it grew to be hours since the trial ended, everyone met at the large clearing.

“Is Dwight really gone?” Kate was trying so hard not cry as she said it, that even looking in her direction was painful on the heart.

   “Yeah. We were against The Nurse. I kept close to Dwight, we were doing pretty good, even with Laurie having gotten hooked so early. The Nurse kept getting between any of us and her hook, we couldn’t save her. Meg popped the generator she was working on, ours was so close, and then The Nurse was right there. She blinked onto my side, I took the hit, but Dwight… He just stood there, watching. The Nurse turned back to him, looking him over. I took off, trying to find someplace I could heal. She downed him, then went hunting. I lured her further across the map, giving Meg a chance to get over to Dwight. Meg got him back on his feet, and they popped the last generator. The Nurse broke off me, heading towards them. I went for a door and got it open. I heard Meg get hit, and saw her running towards my door. I hid around one the columns, waiting for Dwight. But he never showed. I went back in, trying to find him, but it was like he vanished. The Nurse did too,” Jake finished describing the trial, and stared at his feet.

The mood around the campfire grew gloomier, and everyone was lost in their own head. Eventually Min spoke up, asking the question everyone was wondering, but no one really wanted to say. “What now?”

   “We keep focused. Maybe Dwight made it out, and is just wandering in the fog. Maybe he’s still wandering around the map, and the Entity just forgot about him. But we need to keep our own hopes up.” Tapp had quickly become one of the louder voices of reason, his neverending will to live, to keep fighting raising everyone’s spirits.

Bill nodded his head in agreement. You couldn’t allow one casualty to set you back that much in a war, and they needed to keep moving forward.

   They kept their eyes peeled during their trials, hoping for a glimpse of Dwight. Time passed and everyone started to get somewhat used to not seeing him around. Bill had taken a nap at his fire when the shrill sound of the whistles cut through the fog. He got up and made his way over. When he got there everyone had already taken a seat, but Claudette was pacing back and forth holding something in her hands. Bill took a seat and waited along with the others. Claudette stopped her pacing, and held up what she had. Everyone recognized it as Dwight’s managers vest, and it seemed as though the temperature dropped.

“I was searching a chest, and found it. It’s..it’s not what I think it is, is it? Please... no, not Dwight. I don’t want to face him, not like this,” She sobbed out the last few words, and Meg quickly got up and hugged her.

   A wind blew through the clearing, and everyone paused. Bill sighed, before getting up and taking the vest from Claudette. He looked around and saw David, Ace, and Min rising to their feet as well. Ace grabbed a map, Min a toolbox, and David cracked his knuckles. Bill took a deep breath before tossing the vest into the campfire, and watched with trepidation as it burned. He had no idea where they were about to go, but he suspected they would know the killer all too well.

   Downtown. They were in a goddamn downtown area. The buildings rose up a few stories on either side, closing in on the street. Most of the shops had open doors, and broken pieces of walls inside, allowing for maneuverability between them. But what really caught everyone's attention, was the pizza parlour and it’s brightly lit logo. A logo they had seen before, on a shirt belonging to an old friend. The inside of the small pizza place was sparsely furnished, just like any other building in this hellhole. Trying to picture it like it would be in the regular world, Bill could see how there would have been tables along both sides of the room, the counter towards the back. A small hallway leading off towards the bathrooms and kitchen entrance. A door lead to the back parking lot, which in turn lead back to the main road. The survivors had stayed as a group, looking around the new map and searching for generators. Finding one that all four of them could work on, they set to work. With a click and chug the generator turned on and the survivors scattered. Bill and Min headed one way, David and Ace the other. Ducking into one the shops further down the street, Bill and Min found a generator and started on it. They turned theirs on just as Ace and David turned on one on the other side of the map.

   Three down, two to go, and no sign of the killer yet. Okay. We can make it. Bill kept saying those words to himself, a mantra of sorts. Spotting a generator on the street, he had begun to make his way over when his heartbeat picked up. He crouched down and looked around him. Min pointed to his left and looking over he saw a glimpse of a bloody button-up shirt, and a head of tousled hair. A familiar look, but so very, very wrong. With the killers back to him and Min, they both crossed the street and moved into one of the buildings. They met up with David and Ace there as well, just as Ace pulled a toolbox out of a chest. Handing it to David, he channeled the map. Looking around, Ace found what he was looking for and pointed in two directions. Everyone nodded and Bill followed David in one direction, and they quickly found the generator Ace had pointed them towards.

   “Aarrgghhh!” The scream echoed across the area, and both Bill and David looked towards it’s location. The thud of a pallet dropping followed immediately by it being destroyed told them that Ace was being chased, and was putting up a hell of a fight. Their generator was at 50 percent, and the two guys focused, hoping Ace could keep the killer busy for just a while longer.

   Click. The generator turned on, lighting up the inside of the shop. They broke off in different directions, Bill headed vaguely towards the other generator Ace had pointed out. He was outside the pizza parlour when he heard it, and he dipped into the place. It was nestled in the back, where the kitchens would be. Min had it at about fifty percent, and Bill joined her. David popping in from the back of the restaurant startled Bill, but he just shook his head and kept going.

   Thud. Another pallet dropped, and they could have sworn they heard the faint sound of a strangled yell. Seems Ace managed to get a stun on the killer. Thud went another pallet, further away from them. The sound they heard next though caused their hearts to sink just a bit. It was the sound of metal meeting flesh, and the scream that accompanied it. The survivors saw Ace fall, and then get picked up. The generator turned on, and they all made note of where the exit gates were.

   David headed towards one, Min the other. Bill headed towards Ace, who had been hooked on the other side of the map. He tossed his hands up a few times, letting Bill now the killer was still in the area, and Bill crouched low, sticking to the shadows. He saw the killer a ways up the street, and his heart ached for what had become of Dwight. The Entity had made him a little bit bigger, adding a bit more muscle to his frame. The shirt he always wore was torn at the shoulders, and a few tears down the back. The tie was gone, and the first few buttons undone. His face was contorted, the eyes hollow. He carried a pizza cutter for his weapon, not a little one used for homes, a big one. Shaped like a half moon and sharpened to a razor point. He was making his way towards one of the exits, and Bill watched as he bore down on Min. The ease with which the killer swung the blade was unnerving, and Min let out a yell as the metal connected with her side. The exit gate opened though, and she ran out.

   Bill grabbed Ace down off the hook, and pointed to the other exit. Ace made use of his Borrowed Time, and took off. Bill dropped a pallet nearby, trying to distract the killer. It seemed to work, as he soon had the killer on him. Bill took off, dipping in and out of buildings and vaulting over everything he could. The whisper like feeling that told Bill the others had left gave him a moment of joy. Bill knew he was going to die this trial, the heartbeats were too loud, too close. He grunted as the blade connected with his shoulder as he leaped over a fallen pallet. The gates were in sight, just ahead but he didn't truly believe he would get there in time.

   Once more the blade connected, hitting him squarely on the ribs. He fell, and was quickly picked up. Without anything else to do, Bill asked a question of his killer. “Is this better kid?” Bill wasn't really expecting an answer, but he had to try one last time. One last attempt to get to the geeky young man who had a knack for leading, and getting everyone to work together. The person who would have been a good boss for whatever company he wanted to work for.

Dwight...no. The killer. This thing wasn't Dwight, not anymore. The Killer hesitated, just for a moment before sticking Bill on another hook. As the Entity's claws dug into his body, Bill looked into the killers eyes. And said goodbye to his friend.

~~~

  
   The survivors were quiet after that, as they gathered around the big campfire. Bill had awoken back at his own fire after the Entity was done with him, and wandered over to the main clearing. Walking in he saw everyone else sitting on various logs or on the ground. Min, David, and Ace were seated together closer to the fire. When Bill came over, everyones attention turned to the four who had gone into the trial. Before a million questions started getting asked, Bill held up his hand for silence. With a gruff sigh, he crouched down next to Ace.

   “He’s gone. Whatever you see that looks like him, it’s not Dwight Fairfield. The geeky, nervous leader is gone,” Bill spoke slowly, letting each sentence sink in to the survivors who hadn’t been there. He locked eyes with each of them, letting them see the pain in his own eyes, and the resolve that lay there as well. There was a whisper as everyone opened their mouths at the same time, but the only sound was that of the fire. With everyone mulling over the new information, Bill stared into the fire, heart aching and his brain working overtime.

   “Do we still call him ‘Dwight’?” Adam voiced one of the noiser thoughts that had been going through Bill’s mind. These trials were hard enough without knowing the names of the ones killing them, and now that they had been friends with one of them, it would be even harder.

   It was several minutes before anyone answered, but eventually Tapp spoke up. “The Boss? Judging from what you have all said, and given the vest that Claudette brought back, it seems that was what he was going to be one day. He was certainly a good leader.”

It was corny. It was god awful bad. But. It was better than nothing. It was better than saying the name of their friend.

~~~

   Several trials had gone by for all of the survivors, a few with The Boss. Calling him that made it just a bit easier to go through the trial, to ignore that they recognized this killer all too well. It still pianed them whenever they found a vest, or whenever they wound up on the damn map and saw the pizza logo. Bill kept his eyes on his fellow survivors, often giving himself up in the trials to ensure they got out safe. He’d seen how hopelessness can spread in a company. One falls, and others follow. He’d seen it a few times in ‘Nam, and the old soldier was going to be damned if he saw it happen here.

   Time was meaningless in the fog. There was no day or night, and no real sense of time passing. The survivors got used to being one less, got used to the new map. The Entity didn’t seem inclined to give them a new survivor to join their ranks, but that was alright. Still there was a shadow on Bill’s mind.

   Tapp was the next one to go. That same hollow look entered his eyes, the one Dwight had. They all tried their hardest to keep him alive during trials, to keep him sane, and for a while it worked. Most of the trials even went well for the survivors, all of them making it out without getting hooked a few times. Still, the infection had set itself into Tapp’s mind, and there was no cure to be found in the fog. Quentin, Tapp, Laurie, and Min had a trial together, and only Laurie actually made it out. Quentin was the first to reappear, and he simply said he’d been hooked. Min came back a bit later, hooked as well. Everyone had gathered at the main campfire by this time, waiting, hoping, fearing. Laurie walked slowly through the fog, head down and holding something with a chain in her hand. As her face came into focus, the survivors all saw the tears that tracked down her cheeks.

   “We were against The Clown. We couldn’t get away from him at all. And somehow he was always between us and the ones on the hook. Tapp...he...he just stopped trying. When the bottle landed at his feet, he just stood there. The hatch had made itself visible, we had gotten three generators done, it was next to me when Tapp fell. I had feared all was lost when I pulled this out of a chest, but the hatch opening before Tapp was dead confirmed it.” Laurie held up what she had in her hand. It was a detectives badge, still gleaming a bright brass color.

   Once more the wind whispered through the fog, calling four of them to a trial. Claudette, Kate, Nea, and Adam got up. Grabbing the badge from Laurie, Nea tossed it into the fire. “Goodbye detective, may you finally find what you were seeking.” With that, all of the survivors said their farewells, for they knew that the next time they saw what looked like Tapp, it would not be their friend.

The Seeker is what the survivors took to calling the new killer, for he was unrelenting in locating them.

~~

Min, Jake, Meg. They fell as well, slipping into the fog one by one.

The Gamer, The Hermit, The Athlete. The new killers swelling the ranks of the other side.

~~

   It took awhile for the remaining survivors to figure it out. During a conversation about some of their more recent matches they realized that no one had gone against The Trapper or The Cannibal. Looking back, it had been roughly a dozen trials since anyone had seen either of those two killers. Did the Entity phase them out, take them to another group of survivors? Or did they displease the Entity so much that it simply got rid of them? None of the survivors had any answers, but they started to keep track of who they went against, and how often.

   The Nurse and the Pig stopped showing up in trials as well. Maybe it was a balance thing. A way of keeping the hopes of the survivors up. It was easier to learn how to counteract a killer when you only had to learn a certain number. Too many and their abilities would blur together.

Quentin and Laurie were both happy and concerned when The Nightmare and The Shape stopped being seen. Happy because their tormentors were no longer haunting them, but concerned because of who they might be tormenting now.

~~

   It didn’t surprise them much when Adam didn’t make it back to the campfire, or when Kate didn’t return after wandering off to find him. They had both had the hopeless hollow look to their eyes for a while. Nor did it surprise the survivors when instead of the Huntress’s lullaby echoing across the map, it was the sounds of a guitar. Or where there used to be a silent whisper followed by the peal of a bell as The Wraith moved, there was now the sound of train wheels on metal, and glass shattering. The Musician and The Professor were not easy ones to face.

   Ace, Laurie, Quentin, and Nea. They followed each other, just a trial or two between each one disappearing. The Cardshark, The Sitter, The Dreamwalker, and The Painter.  
Bill was slightly relieved not to hear the sound of The Hillbilly tearing across the fields anymore, or how he stopped having the shit scared out of him by a hidden trap, and having The Hag show up next to him. And to no longer be driven insane on a regular basis by The Doctor was nice. But still, this was no better really.

   David, Claudette, and Bill agreed, they would never tell any new survivors who the killers were. They would not tell them of how they had been so close in companionship to the ones who now hunted them. And new survivors did join them at their campfire, but the old three kept their distance just a bit. It was less painful to see them get hooked, or to be mori’d. It was easier not knowing who they were. And it would be easier for them when David, Bill, and Claudette left. Bill had no doubt that eventually they would all fall. They would all succumb to the infection that they had always been fighting.

   David gave in next. His eyes had a slightly different look to them, more the look of someone who wanted only one thing, and that thing was forever lost. When they found themselves at the pizza parlour, Bill knew David wasn’t leaving. They got four generators turned on, 3 of the survivors having gotten hooked once along the way. With the last generator being a three man one, David made his way back into the restaurant. The generator turned on with a CLICK, and Bill pointed the two new survivors towards the far door before dropping a pallet at the other end. The Boss walked towards where Bill had made the noise, but stopped when he heard a voice call out.

“Dwight?” David’s voice was quiet, void of emotion.

   Looking in through the window of the pizza joint, Bill saw that David had righted a couple of the overturned chairs, and set them on either side of one of the few intact tables. The rugged scrapper had taken a seat, and the one who used to be Dwight took the opposite chair. David looked through the window, and smiled faintly at Bill. I’m happier here Bill, this is all that is left to me. Get out old man. Bill nodded his head, and made his way out of the exit gates. He was familiar with only wanting one thing, and the pain of not being able to get it. As the fog closed in behind him, obscuring the lights of the downtown streets, Bill bid farewell.

   He wasn’t there with Claudette when she left, but he knew she was gone when he found a pair of cracked blue framed glasses during a trial. The new survivors asked questions, about how they had lost ones that used to join them at the campfires, and Bill told them some bullshit about the Entity taking them to different places. Wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. Bill started giving out short replies, ‘Stick together. Look out for each other. Keep calm, and assess every situation. Don’t fight amongst yourselves, it ain’t worth it.’ Bunch of crap in Bill’s mind, but words that the new group seemed to take to heart.

~~

Bill never even noticed when The Spirit and The Clown were no longer his killers.

~~

   Bill took to staying by himself, getting people off hooks when needed, but otherwise staying away from the survivors. Benedict’s words still echoed and flowed through his mind, words he had never gotten rid of after Dwight...faded. As Bill sat at his campfire, he looked at his arms, pulling his old jacket off to get a better look. Were those shadows, or something else on his skin? Was one arm always that much brawnier then the other? Had he always had those thoughts of death? The old soldier pondered this for a long while. When he looked towards the large clearing, where the other survivors were gathered, he felt..nothing. They could have been trees for all he cared, or noticed. They got into small squabbles occasionally, or raucous fits of laughter, but it was never able to get Bill’s attention. The only thing that could get his attention anymore was the breeze, whispering to him, calling him to a trial. He got up, putting his jacket back on and lighting another cigarette. He grabbed one of his better toolboxes, and tossed an offering into the fire.

   Bill turned on one generator on his own, and handed his toolbox to one of the other survivors when they crossed paths before helping turn on two more. With the killer across the map, he lead the survivor that was with him to the last generator that needed to be activated. It was a three man one, with two people already on it. Bill headed back into the depths of the fog, knocking over a pallet along the way. When the killer inevitably found him, the old soldier didn’t even run. He didn’t really feel the hook as it dug into his shoulder, and the sound of the last generator turning on was barely noticed. He felt the shift as the survivors were chased out the gates, and as the Entity’s claws dug into his flesh. Bill didn’t try to resist, finally succumbing to the infection that had been in his system for a very long time. His eyes closed on that place, and opened in another.

_Mercy Hospital. A time before the Entity. Before his life was full of hooks, and generators, and heartbeats. Before he had become friends with so many young kids. A time where he had been friends with only three. As he walked the halls, Bill looked at the way he had changed since he was here last. He didn’t stand any taller, but the limp was gone from his knee, and he could straighten his back up with ease. His skin had taken on a slightly ashen appearance, with black streaking where his veins were. As he passed a mirror, Bill looked at his eyes. They had turned a dark color, the pale blue that had provided a striking offset to his face gone. His beret was gone as well, white hair lying matted to his skull._

_Looking out a window he saw familiar streets, except for one building. A pizza place, with a logo that was familiar as well, but from another era. Walking over took only a few minutes, and a small bell tinkled as he opened the door. A well lit interior, with tables along both walls, and a counter towards the back greeted the soldier. Gathered at the various tables were people he knew. The ones who had saved him time and again, then killed him as often. The people who had taken a spot in his heart. David raised his glass to Bill, and Claudette all but strangled him with her hug. The laughter that followed Bill almost falling on his ass was contagious, and soon the entire room was shaking with mirth. Bill smiled for the first time in ages, a true smile. He was home. He had an enemy to face, though different from any he knew, and he had a team._


End file.
